Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress. : Appendix Volume XIX A. Report by the Rev. J.C. Pringle on the effects of employment or assistance given to the "unemployed" since 1886 as a means of relieving distress outside the Poor Law in Scotland.
- Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress 1905-09
- Date:
- 1910
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress. : Appendix Volume XIX A. Report by the Rev. J.C. Pringle on the effects of employment or assistance given to the "unemployed" since 1886 as a means of relieving distress outside the Poor Law in Scotland. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
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![capacity appear to have regarded these societies as their organ for the relief of the able- bodied, and provosts and lord provosts have from time to time given them that place in their speeches. Pursuing the method adopted by Mr. Cyril Jackson and myself in our Report, Subject B for England and Wales, I have put together, in tabular form, the information I have been able to collect, under the four headings (c) (d) (e) (/), whether from published reports or by personal inquiry. The published information consists of that contained in :— The Board of Trade Report on the Unemployed, 1893. The Board of Supervision (Scotland) Report on the Relief of the Able-bodied Unemployed during the winter of 1893-4 [C.7410]. The Reports of the Select Committees of the House of Commons on Distress due to Lack of Employment, 1895 and 1896. A number of Glasgow Reports on the Relief of the Unemployed. (These concern largely the efforts of local authorities, although they frequently mention private action). Annual Reports of the Edinburgh Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor ; Leith Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor ; Aberdeen Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor ; Paisley Associa- tion for Improving the Condition of the Poor ; Dundee Charity Organisation Society. The published information contained in the first group, supplemented by such infor- mation as I could collect personally, appears in a table entitled Table showing relief works and funds in certain burghs in Scotland, 1878-1907, Appendix, pp. 148-167. The information contained in the second group is presented in five tables, one for each society, Appendix pp. 109-146.* In order to reduce this information to a form in which it more immediately answers Questions (c), (d), (e) and (/), atable summarizing it for the local authorities under (d) and (/) and a similar one for the five societies under (c), (d) and (/) have been appended to the complete tables themselves. The information forthcoming on these points can be seen at a glance by referring to these tables which are to be found in the Appendix, page 168 and page 147 respectively. Owing to the fragmentary nature of the information available, no attempt to produce totals of monies raised has been made, but the amounts raised and spent both by local authorities and societies are given, if known, on every occasion. Some idea of a total for Glasgow is to be found in Part IV., 3, of this Report. For further consideration of (c) the reader is referred to Part IV. The only ofl&cial Report in which Questions (d) and (/) are discussed fully is that of Mr. J. R. Motion on The Unemployed in Glasgow, 1904-5, which is frequently quoted in this Report, and the whole of which is relevant and most important. In his speech at the close of the relief operations in Glasgow in 1895, Lord Provost Bell showed himself emphatically opposed to any State relief of unemployment, maintaining that municipal bodies and private charity working together had always been able to cope with exceptional distress. He contemplated a small rate being levied for the purpose in small places. He maintained that relief work should be confined to digging and stone breaking, such works as bridges being wholly unsuitable for times of distress. * I tender my apologies to the societies if the tables give an unfair or wholly inadequate view of this aspect of their work. NOTE.—References made in this Volume, and in the Reforts of the Commission to the pages in this Volume](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2439998x_0032.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
